The term load forecast refers to the projected load requirement using systematic process of defining load in sufficient quantitative detail so that important power system expansion decisions can be made. Load forecasting is necessary for economic generation of power, economic allocation between plants (unit commitment scheduling), maintenance scheduling & for system security such as peak load shaving by power interchange with interconnected utilities. With structural changes to electricity in recent years, there is an emphasis on Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF).STLF is the essential part of power system planning & operation. Basic operating functions such as unit commitment, economic dispatch, and fuel scheduling & unit maintenance can be performed efficiently with an accurate forecast. Short term load forecasting can help to estimate load flows & to make decisions that can prevent overloading. Timely implementations of such decisions lead to improvement of network reliability & to the reduced occurrences of equipment failures & blackouts. The aim of short term load forecasting is to predict future electricity demands based, traditionally on historical data and predicted weather conditions. Short term load forecasting in its basic form is a statistical problem, where in the previous load values (time series variables) and influencing factors (casual variables) are used to determine the future loads.
Daily Peak Load Forecasting by Artificial Neural Network using Differential Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization Considering Outliers